MLive.com FileGrand Rapids Comptroller Donijo DeJonge, seen here celebrating her election last fall with Mayor George Heartwell and his wife, Susan, wants voters to amend the city charter and make her job an appointed one instead of an elected one.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - City Comptroller Donijo DeJonge wants Grand Rapids voters to make her job an appointment by the city manager, rather than an election of the people.

City Commission on Tuesday will consider her request to put an amendment to the city charter on the Nov. 6 ballot. If three-fifths of City Commission agrees to put the amendment to voters, and voters approve it, then the comptroller no longer would be elected.

DeJonge said that would "professionalize" rather than politicize the job that since 1916 has basically functioned as the city's financial bookkeeper. She also envisions the appointed comptroller taking on the budgeting duties of the chief financial officer, a job now done separately by Scott Buhrer.

"We're operating a 21st-century municipal corporation on a century-old finance structure. What I'm proposing is a modernization," DeJonge said. "What I see coming out of this is better work flow. We (in the comptroller's office and the CFO's office) all need to get on the same page.

"A lot of the stuff we do is not very efficient. It's not that we're duplicating, but we certainly operate in silos. Why not put that all under one roof? If we really want to transform, then let's start at the top."

Grand Rapids voters usually elect a city comptroller to a 4-year term, but DeJonge last fall won election to the final two years of Milanowski's unexpired term by beating former Kent County commissioner and state lawmaker Michael Sak at the polls.

DeJonge's term expires in 2013, but she said she would not seek appointment to comptroller if city voters approve the charter amendment.

"This is not me trying to grab for power," DeJonge said. "I will be out of a job if this passes" because I don't have the qualifications to do a merged comptroller-CFO role.